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Objective To compare the concentration of Low-Density Lipoprotein (LDL-c) obtained using the Friedewald formula with those obtained directly with the RAYTO CHEMRAY 120 autoanalyzer. Methods Cross-sectional study. We evaluated outpatients with a medical request for a lipid profile study (total cholesterol, triglycerides, LDL, and HDL). The analyses were carried out in a RAYTO CHEMRAY 120 autoanalyzer under the principle of spectrophotometry. We obtained LDL-c using the Friedewald and Vujovic formulas. Results We evaluated 199 individuals whose direct LDL concentration averages were measured by the RAYTO CHEMRAY 120 equipment. Those calculated by the Friedewald and Vujovic formulas were 129.97 ± 32.66, 119.28 ± 30.44, and 127.01 ± 32.01, respectively, and in all cases, significant differences (P < 0.001) were observed with the RAYTO analyzer. In both cases a low positive bias was found with the RAYTO analyzer.. The Passing-Bablok and Deming's regressions showed a linear correlation between both methods (Friedewald and Vujovic) with the LDL values obtained with the Rayto autoanalyzer. Conclusions Our study found that the Friedewald and Vujovic methods are good predictors of LDL cholesterol levels and have a low level of bias. Therefore, they could be used as potential predictors.

The effect of helium plasma operation on the erosion of plasma-facing components at the low-field side divertor of ASDEX Upgrade was investigated during the 2022 helium experimental campaign. A set of tungsten-covered graphite samples with small platinum marker spots was exposed to both L-mode and H-mode plasma discharges. The highest net erosion of over 1.1 nm/s was observed around the H-mode strike point similar to the case in deuterium plasma. Significant helium inventories of about 6 × 1016 He/cm2 were measured in the scrape-off layer region of the divertor. Impurity deposition including boron and deuterium showed a distinct peak up to 2.4 × 1017 B/cm2 and 1.0 × 1016 D/cm2 between the strike points, and significant boron inventories up to 5.9 × 1016 B/cm2 were also measured on the scrape-off layer side of the H-mode strike point. Platinum re-deposition was not detected between the marker spots, suggesting that it occurs only very locally within the markers. Overall erosion was, as expected, higher than in deuterium discharges, and it also remained comparatively high towards the scrape-off layer, unlike with deuterium.

Kuormatraktoreiden käytön aiheuttamat juuristovauriot ja urapainumat ovat todennäköinen riski suometsien puunkorjuussa. Suometsien puunkorjuussa oleellista on soveltuvan korjuukaluston valinta. Työtapaan kuuluu yleensä havutuksen käyttö ajourien vahvistamisessa. Erilliset maaperän vahvistamisratkaisut, kuten erityyppiset ajosillat ja kumimatot, ovat jääneet lähinnä kokeiluasteelle. Projektissa kehitettiin puutavara-autolla ja kuormatraktorilla käsiteltävät ja siirrettävät CLT-levyt (cross laminated timber). CLT-levyjä käytettäisiin kuormatraktorin kokoojaurien ja varastopaikkojen vahvistamiseen heikosti kantavilla turvemailla. CLT-levyjen rakenneratkaisuiden lisäksi tutkittiin puutavara-auton ja kuormatraktorin soveltuvuutta, ajanmenekkiä ja kustannuksia CLT-levyjen käsittelyssä ja siirroissa. Logistiikkakustannusten määritys perustui levyjen käsittelyn työaikatutkimuksella määritettyyn ajanmenekkiin sekä kuljetuskapasiteetin osalta levyjen laskennalliseen mitoitukseen. Kokonaispainoltaan 76 000 kg:n puutavara-auton laskennallinen kuljetuskapasiteetti oli 54 CLT-levyä, joista pystyttäisiin rakentamaan nimellispituudeltaan 108 metrin pituinen ajoura. Kuorma täyttäisi puutavara-auton tilavuuskapasiteetin, mutta kantavuudesta jäisi käyttämättä noin 16 000 kg. Kenttäkokeiden kokemusten ja aikatutkimuksen tulosten perusteella levyjen kuormaus (kuormaussykli noin 40 s/levy) ja kuorman purkaminen (kuormaussykli noin 35 s/levy) puutavara-autolla ja kuormatraktorilla oli kohtalaisen sujuvaa ja ajanmenekkien hajonta pientä. Sen sijaan varsinkin levyjen asennus ajouralle oli aikaa vievää (kuormaussykli noin 100 s/levy). Työn sujuvuuteen vaikuttivat merkittävästi muun muassa kuormatraktorin tyyppi, näkyvyys ja levyjen tartuntaratkaisut. Kun levyjen kaukokuljetusmatka korjuukohteelle oli noin 50 kilometriä, oli levyjen edestakaisen autokuljetuksen kokonaiskustannus vetoauton kuormalla (18 levyä) yli 500 euroa ja täysperävaunukuormalla (54 levyä) alle 800 euroa. Kuljetuskustannus kasvoi jyrkästi kuljetusmatkan suhteen, ja toisaalta muiden kuljetusten ketjuttaminen ja tyhjänä ajon korvaaminen muilla kuljetuksilla vaikuttivat oleellisesti kustannusten tasoon. Levyjen metsäkuljetuksen ja asennuksen yksikkökustannukset olivat pienimmillään 8–9 €/levy ja kasvoivat noin 1 €/levy kun metsäkuljetusmatka kasvoi sadalla metrillä. Levyjen määrän vaikutus yksikkökustannukseen oli vähäinen. Levyjen käytöllä voitaisiin saavuttaa puunkorjuussa suoria kustannussäästöjä tilanteissa, joissa puutavaran metsäkuljetusmatkaa voitaisiin lyhentää merkittävästi ja kuljetettava puutavara­määrä olisi suurehko, vähintään 500–1000 kuutiometriä. Tilanteissa, joissa korjuulohkon sijainti on heikosti kantavan maapohjan takana, voitaisiin levyjen käytöllä mahdollistaa korjuun ajoittaminen sulan maan ajalle.

Laser Induced Breakdown Spectroscopy (LIBS) method is considered to be a promising tool for analyzing the retention of hydrogen isotopes (D and T) and helium (He) on the first walls and divertor regions of future fusion reactors. Helium will be produced in DT reactions but could also be used in the initial non-nuclear phases of DEMO concepts. The present study investigates the He detection by LIBS method in the Be coatings simulating the deposits on the divertor plasma-facing components of JET while the results are also relevant for He detection in the deposits of other wall materials. The study was carried out in a vacuum vessel filled with 2–40 mbar argon background gas. It was shown that 2.8 at. % of He was confidently detectable by LIBS at optimized measurement conditions and the estimated limit of detection at used experimental conditions is approximately 0.7 at. %. The intensity of the He emission line at 587.56 nm was the strongest at the center of the laser-induced plasma plume. The He line intensity increased with the pressure of Ar gas but the broadening of the He line and the increase of the background emission and noise set an upper limit to the Ar background pressure usable for He detection. The application of the calibration-free LIBS procedure resulted in the overestimation of the He/Be ratio by several orders of magnitude. The overestimation can be explained by the deviation of LIBS plasma from the local thermodynamic equilibrium, which is caused by the very high excitation energy of He atoms.

Co-deposited layers on surfaces of bulk tungsten divertor tiles (W lamellae) from the first campaign of JET with the ITER-Like Wall (JET-ILW, 2011–2012) were examined by means of a cross-sectional transmission electron microscope observation. The focus was on geometrical effects in impurity deposition, mainly beryllium (Be), on surfaces located in the poloidal gap separating adjacent lamellae. The study was carried out on the sides (gap surfaces) of two W lamellae from Stack C (located on the outboard part of the horizontal section of the lower divertor), from the region most exposed to the plasma (lamella C23) and in the magnetic shadow of the upstream divertor module (lamella C3). The tile manufacturing process (cold rolling) left shallow grooves, i.e. structures classified as convex (hill) and concave (valley) regions. These regions are decisive for the deposition structure. The main results were: (i) two kinds of impurity deposition features, “homogeneous” and “directional”, have been distinguished; (ii) the directional ones were characterized by nanoscale inclined vertical stripes in the deposition layer; (iii) homogeneous deposition without directional features were in the valley region. The results clearly indicate the impact of the surface finish, even in the tile gaps, on the qualitative and quantitative aspects of deposition.

The EU’s influence on national forest policies is growing, and the implementation of forest-related policies proposed by the Commission will affect the practice of forestry in Europe. For instance, the Nature Restoration Law sets concrete areal goals for restoring forest ecosystems and for conservation, the Deforestation Regulation requires meticulous tracking of wood’s origin, and the renewed Renewable Energy Directive (RED III) sets new criteria to sustainable forest biomass procurement. So far there have been no studies that have looked into the impacts from the economic and operational point of view. In this study, structural systems analysis was first performed to discover the relevant variables (and their functioning) associated with the roundwood harvesting operations and the operating environment. A scenario approach was then applied to capture the potential levels of implementation of the EU’s forest-related policies. Finally, using different scenarios (low-, moderate- and high-impact) and a systems analysis framework, the impact of alternative levels of implementation was quantified in terms of harvesting costs, measured in € m–3. The results indicate that with the low- and moderate-impact scenarios the harvesting costs would increase by less than 10% from the current levels in three different regions in Finland. Such an increase (less than 10%) could be tolerated over a period of a few years, but a sudden increase is likely to lead to challenges to the running of businesses. With the high-impact scenario the harvesting costs would increase by between 15% and 18%, depending on the region. This magnitude of increase (of approximately a sixth) corresponds to a severe change in the roundwood harvesting operations and operating environment.

Sosiaalityötä sääteleviin lakeihin perustuva suunnitelmallisuus kehystää ammatillista työskentelyä, ohjaa asiakkaan asian käsittelyä ja kattaa useita vaiheita alkuarvioinnista työskentelyvaiheeseen ja prosessin päättämiseen. Suunnitelmallisen sosiaalityön välineenä toimiva dokumentaatio tukee asiakkaan tilanteen hahmottamista, laadukasta työtä ja monialaista yhteistyötä asetettujen tavoitteiden saavuttamiseksi. Artikkelissa suunnitelmallista sosiaalityötä lähestytään tietojärjestelmien näkökulmasta ja tarkastellaan tietojärjestelmien toimivuutta suunnitelmallisen sosiaalityön tukena. Tutkimuksessa kysyttiin, miten hyvin asiakastietojärjestelmät tukevat suunnitelmallista sosiaalityötä. Aineistona hyödynnettiin kansallisessa STePS 3.0 -hankkeessa syksyllä 2020 kerättyä kyselyaineistoa, joista tutkimukseen valittiin laillistettujen sosiaalityöntekijöiden vastaukset (N=429). Aineistoa analysoitiin kuvailevilla menetelmillä ja rakentamalla summamuuttujia aineistoa tiivistäen. Määrällistä analyysiä täydennettiin hyödyntämällä avovastauksista muodostettua laadullista aineistoa (3706 sanaa). Tulosten mukaan sosiaalityöntekijät arvioivat tietojärjestelmien tiedon laadun pääosin hyväksi, mutta olennaisen ja tarpeellisen tiedon hahmottaminen on useimmille haastavaa. Enemmistö sosiaalityöntekijöistä koki, ettei tietojärjestelmä tue riittävästi laadukasta työtä eikä dokumentaatiota. Lähes puolet arvioi myös työn hallinnan ja asiakkaan tilanteen hahmottamisen tuen olevan huonoa. Sosiaalityöntekijöiden tyytymättömyys oli suurinta koskien tietojärjestelmän tarjoamaa tukea asiakkaan ja ammattilaisen väliselle, monialaiselle sekä organisaatioiden väliselle yhteistyölle ja tiedonkululle. Tutkimus nostaa tietääksemme ensimmäistä kertaa suunnitelmallisen sosiaalityön tietojärjestelmiä tarkastelevan tutkimuksen keskiöön. Tuloksia voidaan hyödyntää tietojärjestelmien kehittämistyössä ja hyvinvointialueilla, joissa monialainen yhteistyö ja sujuva tiedonkulku korostuvat. Sosiaalityöntekijöiden luottamus tietojärjestelmien tiedon laatuun luo hyvät edellytykset tiedon hyödyntämiselle, mutta kehittämistä tarvitaan tiedon hyödyntämisen toteutumiseksi suunnitelmallisen sosiaalityön käytännössä.

Abstract Background Under the growing pressure to implement mitigation actions, the focus of forest management is shifting from a traditional resource centric view to incorporate more forest ecosystem services objectives such as carbon sequestration. Estimating the above-ground biomass in forests using airborne laser scanning (ALS) is now an operational practice in Northern Europe and is being adopted in many parts of the world. In the boreal forests, however, most of the carbon (85%) is stored in the soil organic (SO) matter. While this very important carbon pool is “invisible” to ALS, it is closely connected and feeds from the growing forest stocks. We propose an integrated methodology to estimate the changes in forest carbon pools at the level of forest stands by combining field measurements and ALS data. Results ALS-based models of dominant height, mean diameter, and biomass were fitted using the field observations and were used to predict mean tree biophysical properties across the entire study area (50 km2) which was in turn used to estimate the biomass carbon stocks and the litter production that feeds into the soil. For the soil carbon pool estimation, we used the Yasso15 model. The methodology was based on (1) approximating the initial soil carbon stocks using simulations; (2) predicting the annual litter input based on the predicted growing stocks in each cell; (3) predicting the soil carbon dynamics of the annual litter using the Yasso15 soil carbon model. The estimated total carbon change (standard errors in parenthesis) for the entire area was 0.741 (0.14) Mg ha−1 yr−1. The biomass carbon change was 0.405 (0.13) Mg ha−1 yr−1, the litter carbon change (e.g., deadwood and leaves) was 0.346 (0.027) Mg ha−1 yr−1, and the change in SO carbon was − 0.01 (0.003) Mg ha−1 yr−1. Conclusions Our results show that ALS data can be used indirectly through a chain of models to estimate soil carbon changes in addition to changes in biomass at the primary level of forest management, namely the forest stands. Having control of the errors contributed by each model, the stand-level uncertainty can be estimated under a model-based inferential approach.

Abstract Background The European Organisation for Research and Treatment of Cancer (EORTC) has developed the Spiritual Well-being Questionnaire (EORTC QLQ-SWB32), a measure of spiritual well-being validated with people receiving palliative care for cancer, although its usefulness is not restricted to that population. We aimed to translate and validate this tool in Finnish and to study the relationship between spiritual well-being (SWB) and quality of life (QOL). Methods A Finnish translation was produced according to the guidelines of EORTC and included forward- and back-translations. Face, content, construct and convergence/divergence validity and reliability were studied in a prospective manner. QOL was assessed with EORTC QLQ-C30 and 15D questionnaires. Sixteen individuals participated in the pilot testing. 101 cancer patients drawn from oncology units, and 89 patients with other chronic diseases drawn from religious communities in different parts of the country participated in the validation stage. Retest was obtained from 16 individuals (8 cancer and 8 non-cancer patients). Inclusion criteria included patients with either a well-defined palliative care plan, or who would benefit from palliative care, as well as the capacity to understand and communicate in Finnish. Results The translation appeared understandable and acceptable. Factorial analysis identified four scoring scales with high Cronbach alfa values: Relationship with Self (0.73), Relationship with Others (0.84), Relationship with Something Greater (0.82), Existential (0.81), and, additionally, a scale on Relationship with God (0.85). There was a significant correlation between SWB and QOL in all participants. Conclusions The Finnish translation of EORTC QLQ-SWB32 is a valid and reliable measure both for research and clinical practice. SWB is correlated with QOL in cancer and non-cancer patients undergoing palliative care or who are eligible for it.

We analyze secret key generation between ambient backscatter devices where the channel between an ambient transmitter and the backscatter devices is used as a source of randomness. The devices do not need to estimate or measure the channel between themselves, which greatly simplifies the gathering of raw key material. We analyze the eavesdropper’s mutual information based on fundamental principles and apply privacy amplification to remove any information that the eavesdropper overheard during the error correction phase. We show how the legitimate users can estimate the eavesdropper’s knowledge and trade off between achievable key rate and the eavesdropper’s knowledge of the final key. When modeling the channel between the ambient transmitter and the backscatter devices using state-of-the-art 3GPP channel models we show that even in non-line-of-sight channels the distance from legitimate users to an eavesdropper being larger than a few wavelengths is not alone a sufficient security guarantee. This is in contrast with previous secret key generation methods where distance is assumed to prevent the eavesdropper from having any information about the key prior to error correction. Our simulations show that a distance based approach is too optimistic and there is a possibility that the eavesdropper still knows a substantial part of the final key.

Abstract Climate change mitigation requires, besides reductions in greenhouse gas emissions, actions to increase carbon sinks in terrestrial ecosystems. A key measurement method for quantifying such sinks and calibrating models is the eddy covariance technique, but it requires imputation, or gap-filling, of missing data for determination of annual carbon balances of ecosystems. Previous comparisons of gap-filling methods have concluded that commonly used methods, such as marginal distribution sampling (MDS), do not have a significant impact on the carbon balance estimate. By analyzing an extensive, global data set, we show that MDS causes significant carbon balance errors for northern (latitude $$>60^\circ$$ > 60 ∘ ) sites. MDS systematically overestimates the carbon dioxide (CO $$_2$$ 2 ) emissions of carbon sources and underestimates the CO $$_2$$ 2 sequestration of carbon sinks. We also reveal reasons for these biases and show how a machine learning method called extreme gradient boosting or a modified implementation of MDS can be used to substantially reduce the northern site bias.

Fuel retention monitoring in tokamak walls requires the development of remote composition analysis methods such as laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy (LIBS). The present study investigates the feasibility of the LIBS method to analyse the composition and fuel retention in three samples from WEST divertor erosion marker tiles after the experimental campaign C3. The investigated samples originated from tile regions outside of strong erosion and deposition regions, where the variation of thin deposit layers is relatively small and facilitates cross-comparison between different analysis methods. The depth profiles of main constituents W, Mo and C were consistent with depth profiles determined by other composition analysis methods, such as glow-discharge optical emission spectroscopy (GDOES) and secondary ion mass spectrometry (SIMS). The average LIBS depth resolution determined from depth profiles was 100 nm/shot. The averaging of the spectra collected from multiple spots of a same sample allowed us to improve the signal-to-noise ratio, investigate the presence of fuel D and trace impurities such as O and B. In the investigated tile regions with negligible erosion and deposition, these impurities were clearly detectable during the first laser shot, while the signal decreased to noise level after a few subsequent laser shots at the same spot. LIBS investigation of samples originating from the deposition regions of tiles may further clarify LIBS’ ability to investigate trace impurities.

Abstract While sunlight may influence cognitive function through several pathways, associations of residential sunlight exposure with cognitive function are not well known. We evaluated associations of long-term residential sunlight exposure with cognitive function among a representative cohort of 1838 Finnish adults residing in Finland who underwent comprehensive cognitive assessment in midlife. We linked daily recordings of global solar radiation to study participants using residential information and calculated the average daily residential exposure to sunlight for four exposure time intervals: 2 months, 1 year, 2 years and 5 years prior to the date of the cognition assessment. Associations of the residential sunlight exposure with cognitive function were assessed using linear regression analyses adjusting for season, sex, age, and individual- and neighborhood-level socioeconomic characteristics. Greater average residential sunlight exposure over 2 and 5 years prior to the cognitive function assessment was associated with better global cognitive function (b = 0.13, 95% CI = 0.01, 0.25; b = 0.17, 95% CI = 0.05, 0.29, per 1 MJ/m2 difference in sunlight exposure), while no associations with global cognitive function were observed at shorter exposure time intervals. In domain-specific analyses, greater residential exposure to sunlight over 1, 2 and 5 years prior to the cognitive function assessment was associated with better performance on new learning and visual memory (b = 0.10, 95% CI = 0.00, 0.20; b = 0.16, 95% CI = 0.04, 0.28; b = 0.19, 95% CI = 0.08, 0.31) and sustained attention (b = 0.15, 95% CI = 0.05, 0.25; b = 0.18, 95% CI = 0.06, 0.30; b = 0.17, 95% CI = 0.05, 0.29), but worse performance on reaction time (b = − 0.12, 95% CI = − 0.22, − 0.02; b = -0.15, 95% CI = − 0.28, − 0.02; b = − 0.18, 95% CI = − 0.30, − 0.05). Residential sunlight exposure was not associated with executive function. These findings suggest long-term residential sunlight exposure may be an environmental factor influencing cognitive function among a cognitively healthy cohort residing in Northern Europe. Further studies in populations residing in different geographical locations are needed.

IntroductionPersonality characteristics affect the long-term well-being and health-related quality of life (HrQoL) of breast cancer (BC) survivors. Persistent pain significantly affects psychosocial well-being and HrQoL in this patient group. We studied the effects of temperament and character via pain-related and psychological factors on dimensions of HrQoL in BC survivors.MethodsWe studied 273 patients who had been treated for BC and who reported persistent pain at any site of the body in Brief Pain Inventory. The patients were recruited from a longitudinal cohort of patients 4–9 years after surgery for BC. Short-Form-36 inventory was used to assess physical and mental dimensions of HrQoL and Temperament and Character Inventory to assess dimensions of temperament and character. We used parallel mediation modeling for studying effects of temperament and character on physical and mental HrQoL.ResultsA significant total effect was found for harm avoidance (HA) temperament (βtotal = −0.665, p

Abstract Study objectives The day-to-next day predictions between physical activity (PA) and sleep are not well known, although they are crucial for advancing public health by delivering valid sleep and physical activity recommendations. We used Big Data to examine cross-lagged time-series of sleep and PA over 14 days and nights. Methods Bi-directional cross-lagged autoregressive pathways over 153,154 days and nights from 12,638 Polar watch users aged 18–60 years (M = 40.1 SD = 10.1; 44.5% female) were analyzed with cross-lagged panel data modeling (RI-CPL). We tested the effects of moderate-to-vigorous physical activity (MVPA) vs. high intensity PA (vigorous, VPA) on sleep duration and quality, and vice versa. Results Within-subject results showed that more minutes spent in VPA the previous day was associated with shorter sleep duration the next night, whereas no effect was observed for MVPA. Longer sleep duration the previous night was associated with less MVPA but more VPA the next day. Neither MVPA nor VPA were associated with subsequent night’s sleep quality, but better quality of sleep predicted more MVPA and VPA the next day. Conclusions Sleep duration and PA are bi-directionally linked, but only for vigorous physical activity. More time spent in VPA shortens sleep the next night, yet longer sleep duration increases VPA the next day. The results imply that a 24-h framing for the interrelations of sleep and physical activity is not sufficient – the dynamics can even extend beyond, and are activated specifically for the links between sleep duration and vigorous activity. The results challenge the view that sleep quality can be improved by increasing the amount of PA. Yet, better sleep quality can result in more PA the next day.

Chemical profiles of arbuscular (AM) and ectomycorrhizal (EM) fungi reveal that differences in decomposability-relevant chemistry are larger between AM and EM fungi than across plant functional groups.

ObjectiveThe aim of the present study was to investigate speech processing development in children with normal hearing (NH) and cochlear implants (CI) groups using a multifeature event-related potential (ERP) paradigm. Singing is associated to enhanced attention and speech perception. Therefore, its connection to ERPs was investigated in the CI group.MethodsThe paradigm included five change types in a pseudoword: two easy- (duration, gap) and three difficult-to-detect (vowel, pitch, intensity) with CIs. The positive mismatch responses (pMMR), mismatch negativity (MMN), P3a and late differentiating negativity (LDN) responses of preschoolers (below 6 years 9 months) and schoolchildren (above 6 years 9 months) with NH or CIs at two time points (T1, T2) were investigated with Linear Mixed Modeling (LMM). For the CI group, the association of singing at home and ERP development was modeled with LMM.ResultsOverall, responses elicited by the easy- and difficult to detect changes differed between the CI and NH groups. Compared to the NH group, the CI group had smaller MMNs to vowel duration changes and gaps, larger P3a responses to gaps, and larger pMMRs and smaller LDNs to vowel identity changes. Preschoolers had smaller P3a responses and larger LDNs to gaps, and larger pMMRs to vowel identity changes than schoolchildren. In addition, the pMMRs to gaps increased from T1 to T2 in preschoolers. More parental singing in the CI group was associated with increasing pMMR and less parental singing with decreasing P3a amplitudes from T1 to T2.ConclusionThe multifeature paradigm is suitable for assessing cortical speech processing development in children. In children with CIs, cortical discrimination is often reflected in pMMR and P3a responses, and in MMN and LDN responses in children with NH. Moreover, the cortical speech discrimination of children with CIs develops late, and over time and age, their speech sound change processing changes as does the processing of children with NH. Importantly, multisensory activities such as parental singing can lead to improvement in the discrimination and attention shifting toward speech changes in children with CIs. These novel results should be taken into account in future research and rehabilitation.

Organic soil amendments such as manure, biochar and compost are among the most efficient and widely used methods to increase soil carbon sequestration in agricultural soils. Even though their benefits are well known, many wood-derived materials are not yet utilized in Nordic agriculture due to a lack of incentives and knowledge of their effects in the local climate. We studied greenhouse gas exchange, plant growth and soil properties of a clay soil cultivated with oat in southern Finland in an extremely dry year. Two years earlier, the field was treated with three ligneous soil amendments—lime-stabilized fiber from the pulp industry, willow biochar and spruce biochar—which we compared against fertilized and non-fertilized controls. We found that the soil amendments increased porosity and the mean soil water holding capacity, which was most noticeable in plots amended with spruce biochar. There was a trend indicating that the mean yield and overall biomass production were larger in plots with soil amendments; however, the difference to unamended control was seldom significant due to the high variance among replicates. Manual chamber measurements revealed that carbon dioxide and methane exchange rates were reduced most probably by the exceptionally hot and dry weather conditions, but no differences could be found between the amended and unamended treatments. The nitrous oxide emissions were significantly smaller from the vegetated soil amended with willow biochar compared with the unamended control. Emissions from non-vegetated soil, representing heterotrophic respiration, were similar but without significant differences between treatments. Overall, the studied soil amendments indicated positive climatic impact two years after their application, but further research is needed to conclusively characterize the specific effects of organic soil amendments on processes affecting greenhouse gas exchange and plant growth.

Circadian rhythms relate to multiple aspects of health and wellbeing, including physical activity patterns. Susceptible circadian regulation predisposes to circadian misalignment, poor sleep, sleep deprivation, increased sleepiness, and thereby sedentary behavior. Adolescents’ circadian regulation is particularly vulnerable, and may lead to sedentary behavior. To investigate which factors associate strongest between physical activity (PA) and circadian behavior, we conducted multimodal circadian rhythm analyses. We investigate how individual characteristics of habitual circadian patterns associate with objectively measured PA. We studied 312 adolescents [70% females) (56% with delayed sleep phase (DSP)], mean age 16.9 years. Circadian period length, temperature mesor (estimated 24 h midline) and amplitude (difference between mesor and peak) were measured using distally attached thermologgers (ibutton 1922L, 3-day-measurement). We additionally utilized algorithm-formed clusters of circadian rhythmicity. Sleep duration, timing, DSP, and PA were measured using actigraphs (GeneActiv Original, 10-day-measurement). We found that continuous circadian period length was not associated with PA, but lower mesor and higher amplitude were consistently associated with higher levels of PA as indicated by mean Metabolic Equivalent (METmean) and moderate-to-vigorous PA (MVPA), even when controlling for sleep duration. Separate circadian clusters formed by an algorithm also reflected distinct patterns of PA accordingly. Late sleepers and those with DSP were less likely to engage in MVPA compared to non-DSP and had more sedentary behavior. Adolescents who engage in higher levels or high-intensity PA have better circadian regulation, as measured by different objective methods including distal temperature measurements as well as actigraphy-measured sleep-wake behavior.

Abstract Background Even though child psychopathology assessment guidelines emphasize comprehensive multi-method, multimodal, and multi-informant methodologies, maternal-report symptom-rating scales often serve as the predominant source of information. Research has shown that parental mood symptomatology affects their reports of their offspring’s psychopathology. For example, the depression-distortion hypothesis suggests that maternal depression promotes a negative bias in mothers’ perceptions of their children’s behavioral and emotional problems. We investigated this difference of perception between adoptive mothers and internationally adopted children. Most previous studies suffer from the potential bias caused by the fact that parents and children share genetic risks. Methods Data were derived from the Finnish Adoption (FinAdo) survey study (a subsample of adopted children aged between 9 and 12 years, n = 222). The Child Behavior Checklist (CBCL) was used to assess emotional and behavioral problems and competences of the adopted children. The CBCL was filled in by the adopted children and the adoptive mothers, respectively. Maternal depressive symptoms were measured using the short version of the General Health Questionnaire. Results On average, mothers reported less total CBCL symptoms in their children than the children themselves (0.25 vs 0.38, p-value

Abstract The individual variation in the circadian rhythms at the physiological level is not well understood. Albeit self-reported circadian preference profiles have been consolidated, their premises are grounded on human experience, not on physiology. We used data-driven, unsupervised time series modelling to characterize distinct profiles of the circadian rhythm measured from skin surface temperature in free-living conditions. We demonstrate the existence of three distinct clusters of individuals which differed in their circadian temperature profiles. The cluster with the highest temperature amplitude and the lowest midline estimating statistic of rhythm, or rhythm-adjusted mean, had the most regular and early-timed sleep–wake rhythm, and was the least probable for those with a concurrent delayed sleep phase, or eveningness chronotype. While the clusters associated with the observed sleep and circadian preference patterns, the entirely unsupervised modelling of physiological data provides a novel basis for modelling and understanding the human circadian functions in free-living conditions.

Maternal diabetes mellitus in pregnancy is associated with impairments in memory functions of the offspring in childhood and adolescence but has not been studied in adulthood. The association of perinatal hypoglycemia with memory has not been studied in adulthood either. The combined sequelae of these two risk factors have not been directly compared. We studied general cognitive ability and memory functions in a prospective follow-up of a cohort born in 1971 to 1974. The sample included participants exposed to prenatal hyperglycemia (n = 24), perinatal hypoglycemia (n = 19), or both (n = 7). It also included controls with no early risks (n = 82). We assessed the participants' Intelligence quotient (IQ), working memory, and immediate and delayed recall of both verbal and visual material at the age of 40. We did not find significant differences in IQ or the memory tests between the groups. We did identify an interaction (p = 0.03) of the early risk with the type of digit span task: compared to the controls, the participants exposed to perinatal hypoglycemia had a larger difference between the forward digit span, a measure of attention, and the backward digit span, a measure of working memory processing (p = 0.022). The interaction remained significant when birth weight was controlled for (p = 0.026). Thus, in this small cohort, prenatal hyperglycemia, perinatal hypoglycemia, and their combination appeared relatively benign disorders. The association of these conditions with neurocognitive impairments in adulthood remains unconfirmed. The significance of the working memory difference needs to be verified with a larger sample.

Abstract Background Increasing the use of forest harvest residues for bioenergy production reduces greenhouse emissions from the use of fossil fuels. However, it may also reduce carbon stocks and habitats for deadwood dependent species. Consequently, simple tools for assessing the trade-offs of alternative management practices on forest dynamics and their services to people are needed. The objectives of this study were to combine mapping and simulation modelling to investigate the effects of forest management on ecosystem services related to carbon cycle in the case of bioenergy production; and to evaluate the suitability of this approach for assessing ecosystem services at the landscape level. Stand level simulations of forest growth and carbon budget were combined with extensive multi-source forest inventory data across a southern boreal landscape in Finland. Stochastic changes in the stand age class distribution over the study region were simulated to mimic variation in management regimes. Results The mapping framework produced reasonable estimates of the effects of forest management on a set of key ecosystem service indicators: the annual carbon stocks and fluxes of forest biomass and soil, timber and energy-wood production and the coarse woody litter production over a simulation period 2012–2100. Regular harvesting, affecting the stand age class distribution, was a key driver of the carbon stock changes at a landscape level. Extracting forest harvest residues in the final felling caused carbon loss from litter and soil, particularly with combined aboveground residue and stump harvesting. It also reduced the annual coarse woody litter production, demonstrating negative impacts on deadwood abundance and, consequently, forest biodiversity. Conclusions The refined mapping framework was suitable for assessing ecosystem services at the landscape level. The procedure contributes to bridging the gap between ecosystem service mapping and detailed simulation modelling in boreal forests. It allows for visualizing ecosystem services as fine resolution maps to support sustainable land use planning. In the future, more detailed models and a wider variety of ecosystem service indicators could be added to develop the method.

In Ambient Backscatter Communications (AmBC), a backscatter device communicates by modulating the ambient radio frequency (RF) signal impinging at its antenna. In many cases, the system setup is bi-static such that the receiver and the ambient signal source are separated in space. This configuration suffers from the direct path interference problem. The direct signal component can be several orders of magnitude stronger than the scattered one. This imposes a challenge for the receiver that needs to have high dynamic range in order not to lose the scattered signal component to the quantization noise. In this paper, we propose a novel AmBC system concept, in which a polarization conversion between the direct and scattered path is introduced at the backscatter device and exploited at the dual polarization based receiver antenna to mitigate the direct path interference. The proposed system is agnostic to the ambient signal source characteristics as long as it uses linearly polarized antennas. The backscatter device changes the polarization from linear to circular. The receiver antenna is a circularly polarized patch antenna with a 180°-hybrid to obtain the difference between the left- and right-hand polarized fields. Ideally, this receiver antenna and 180°-hybrid combination would completely remove linearly polarized direct path and reflected components. In this paper, we propose a robust design that can mitigate the direct path signal power more than 25 dB despite nonidealities in the antenna manufacturing.

Subjective evaluation of psychiatric patients is less accurate and more variable than the average in the general population and, thus, it is important to discuss the relationship between subjective and objective ability. However, few studies have explored differences between psychiatric patients’ subjective ability and objective cognitive test performance. We gathered a sample of consecutive (unselected) patients referred for psychiatric assessment of work ability at Helsinki University Hospital. Subjective resilience was measured with Wagnild’s 14-item Resilience Scale (RS-14) and objective ability with Cambridge Neuropsychological Test Automated Battery (CANTAB). As a whole, the patients estimated their resilience to be low. Patients diagnosed with depressive disorder or bipolar disorder estimated their resilience significantly lower than the other psychiatric group. Yet with neuropsychological tests there was no difference between groups. Resilience correlated positively with the work ability recommendations given at the end of the assessment period. When resilience increased, the probability of belonging to the group that was able to work was significantly higher compared to the groups that were totally or partially unable to work. The result remained the same even if education was taken into account.

The quality of parenting shapes the development of children’s emotion regulation. However, the relative importance of parenting in different developmental stages, indicative of sensitive periods, has rarely been studied. Therefore, we formulated four hypothetical developmental timing models to test the stage-specific effects of mothering and fathering in terms of parental autonomy and intimacy in infancy, middle childhood, and late adolescence on adolescents’ emotion regulation. The emotion regulation included reappraisal, suppression, and rumination. We hypothesized that both mothering and fathering in each developmental stage contribute unique effects to adolescents’ emotion regulation patterns. The participants were 885 families followed from pregnancy to late adolescence. This preregistered study used data at the children’s ages of 1 year, 7 to 8 years, and 18 years. At each measurement point, maternal and paternal autonomy and intimacy were assessed with self- and partner reports using the Subjective Family Picture Test. At the age of 18 years, adolescents’ reappraisal and suppression were assessed using the Emotion Regulation Questionnaire and rumination using the Cognitive Emotion Regulation Questionnaire. Stage-specific effects were tested comparing structural equation models. Against our hypotheses, the results showed no effects of mothering or fathering in infancy, middle childhood, or late adolescence on adolescents’ emotion regulation patterns. The results were consistent irrespective of both the reporter (i.e., self or partner) and the parental dimension (i.e., autonomy or intimacy). In addition to our main results, there were relatively low agreement between the parents in each other’s parenting and descriptive discontinuity of parenting across time (i.e., configural measurement invariance). Overall, we found no support for the stage-specific effects of parent-reported parenting in infancy, middle childhood, or late adolescence on adolescents’ emotion regulation. Instead, our findings might reflect the high developmental plasticity of emotion regulation from infancy to late adolescence.

Digital and mobile devices enable easy access to applications for the learning of foreign languages. However, experimental studies on the effectiveness of these applications are scarce. Moreover, it is not understood whether the effects of speech and language training generalize to features that are not trained. To this end, we conducted a four-week intervention that focused on articulatory training and learning of English words in 6–7-year-old Finnish-speaking children who used a digital language-learning game app Pop2talk. An essential part of the app is automatic speech recognition that enables assessing children’s utterances and giving instant feedback to the players. The generalization of the effects of such training in English were explored by using discrimination tasks before and after training (or the same period of time in a control group). The stimuli of the discrimination tasks represented phonetic contrasts from two non-trained languages, including Russian sibilant consonants and Mandarin tones. We found some improvement with the Russian sibilant contrast in the gamers but it was not statistically significant. No improvement was observed for the tone contrast for the gaming group. A control group with no training showed no improvement in either contrast. The pattern of results suggests that the game may have improved the perception of non-trained speech sounds in some but not all individuals, yet the effects of motivation and attention span on their performance could not be excluded with the current methods. Children’s perceptual skills were linked to their word learning in the control group but not in the gaming group where recurrent exposure enabled learning also for children with poorer perceptual skills. Together, the results demonstrate beneficial effects of learning via a digital application, yet raise a need for further research of individual differences in learning.

BackgroundThe aim of this study was to investigate the effectiveness of psychotherapeutic interventions for clinically referred adolescents, as well as to examine whether sociodemographic, clinical, or treatment-related variables and patients’ role expectations predict treatment outcome or are possible predictors of treatment dropout.MethodThe study comprised 58 adolescents (mean age 14.2, 65.5% female) suffering from diverse psychiatric disorders referred to psychotherapeutic interventions conducted in outpatient care. The outcome measures, The Beck Depression Inventory, and the Clinical Outcomes in Routine Evaluation – Outcome Measure were filled in at baseline and at 3-, 6-, and 12-month follow-ups. Possible predictors were assessed at baseline.ResultsThe results indicate that the mean level of symptoms and psychological distress decreased during the treatment, most reduction occurring in the first 6 months. The frequency of treatment sessions was the strongest predictor of good outcome. Adolescents with a higher level of externalizing problems or lower level of expectations for their own active role in treatment seem to have a higher risk of dropping out.ConclusionOffering intensive treatment for a shorter period might be the most efficient way to gain symptom reduction and decrease psychological distress in psychotherapeutic interventions with adolescents. Being aware of externalizing behavior and increasing the adolescents’ own agency during the assessment could strengthen commitment and result in the adolescent benefiting more from treatment.

Recently, the use of information and communications technology (ICT) at school has been extensively increased in Finland. This study investigated whether the use of ICT at school is linked to students ‘learning outcomes in Finland. We used the Finnish PISA 2015 data (N=5037). Cognitive learning outcomes (i.e. science, mathematics, reading, collaborative problem-solving) were evaluated with computer-based tests. ICT use at school, ICT availability at school, and students’ perceived ICT competence were assessed with self-rating questionnaires. Frequent ICT use at school predicted students’ weaker performance in all the cognitive learning outcomes, when adjusted for age, gender, parental socioeconomic status, students’ ICT competence, and ICT availability at school. Further, the effect of ICT use on learning outcomes was more negative in students with higher than lower ICT skills. Frequent use of ICT at school appears to be linked to weaker cognitive learning outcomes in Finland. This may be explained by working memory overload and task-switching during the use of digital technologies. This finding also suggests that even though students with ICT skills are good at mechanical use of digital device, they may not have abilities for a goal-oriented and self-directed use of digital technologies that could promote their learning.

Pulpwood arriving at the mills is mainly measured by weighing. In the loading phase of forwarding and trucking, timber is weighed using scales mounted in the grapple loader. The measured weight of timber is converted into volume using a conversion factor defined as green density (kg m). At the mill, the green density factor is determined by sampling measurements, while in connection with weighing with grapple-mounted scales during transportation, fixed green density factors are used. In this study, we developed predictive regression models for the green density of pulpwood. The models were constructed separately by pulpwood assortments: pine (contains mainly L); spruce (mainly (L.) Karst.); decayed spruce; birch (mainly Ehrh. and Roth); and aspen (mainly L.). Study material was composed of the sampling-based measurements at the mills between 2013â2019. The models were specified as linear mixed models with both fixed and random parameters. The fixed effect produced the expected value of green density as a function of delivery week, storage time, and meteorological conditions during storage. The random effects allowed the model calibration by utilizing the previous sampling weight measurements. The model validation showed that the model predictions faithfully reproduced the observed seasonal variation in green density. They were more reliable than those obtained with the current practices. Even the uncalibrated (fixed) predictions had lower relative root mean squared prediction errors than those obtained with the current practices.â3Pinus sylvestrisPicea abiesBetula pubescensBetula pendulaPopulus tremula

We used crowdsourcing (CS) to examine how COVID-19 lockdown affects the content of dreams and nightmares. The CS took place on the sixth week of the lockdown. Over the course of 1 week, 4,275 respondents (mean age 43, SD = 14 years) assessed their sleep, and 811 reported their dream content. Overall, respondents slept substantially more (54.2%) but reported an average increase of awakenings (28.6%) and nightmares (26%) from the pre-pandemic situation. We transcribed the content of the dreams into word lists and performed unsupervised computational network and cluster analysis of word associations, which suggested 33 dream clusters including 20 bad dream clusters, of which 55% were pandemic-specific (e.g., Disease Management, Disregard of Distancing, Elderly in Trouble). The dream-association networks were more accentuated for those who reported an increase in perceived stress. This CS survey on dream-association networks and pandemic stress introduces novel, collectively shared COVID-19 bad dream contents.

Background/Aims: To detect cognitive decline in older adults, measures of verbal fluency and verbal memory are widely used. Less is known about performance in these measures in younger persons or according to education level and gender. We investigated cognitive performance according to age, education and gender among cognitively healthy adults aged 30–100 years. Methods: The study population comprised 4,174 cognitively healthy persons participating in the nationally representative Finnish Health 2011 survey. Cognitive assessment included verbal fluency, word list memory, word list recall and word list savings from the Consortium to Establish a Registry for Alzheimer’s Disease neuropsychological battery. Results: Total variance in the cognitive test performance explained by age, education and gender varied from 12.3 to 31.2%. A decreasing trend in cognitive performance existed in all subtests by advancing age, with differences appearing between 50 and 55 years. Persons with the highest-education level performed best for all measures. For the participants < 55 years, education explained part of the variance, while age and gender did not. Conclusions: When assessing cognition, age and education should be accounted for in more detail in research and clinical practice. Additionally, the cohort effect and its potential impact on the renewal cycle of future normative values for cognitive tests should be considered.

Cohabitation is more common than marriage when couples are expecting their first child in Finland. However, little is known about possible differences in wellbeing between the two groups. In this study, we examined differences in parental wellbeing, relationship satisfaction, infant health outcomes, and use of social support among cohabiting and married first-time parents. Survey data was collected from 903 parents during pregnancy and at one month postpartum. Cohabiting parents had more depressive symptoms than married parents. They were also less satisfied with their relationships and expressed less satisfaction with the quality of support they got from their partner. Cohabiting fathers did not use the cost-free support from maternity clinics as often as married fathers. Our results show differences in well-being between married and cohabiting first-time parents and that the support from maternity clinics should better acknowledge diversity and address the different needs of different types of families.

Abstract Background This study aimed to investigate longitudinally examination and visiting patterns in the Finnish Public Dental Service (PDS) and to relate these to patients’ treatment needs and international recommendations on examination intervals. Methods Data on patients and their dental visits in the period 2001–2013 were collected from five municipal PDS-units serving a total population of 320,000 inhabitants and using the same database system. Ethical approval was given by the National Institute for Health and Welfare (THL) and permissions to use local data by the directors of health services in each unit. For each year, the numbers of visitors, those examined and those in need of basic periodontal or caries treatment (CPI >2 and D + d > 0) were calculated separately for young people (< 18 years), the working-aged (18–64 years) and the elderly (65+ years). Each individual’s examination and visiting intervals were counted. Multilevel modelling was used to study probabilities of being examined or in need of treatment and differences in examination and visiting intervals between groups and over time. Results From 2001 to 2013, the number of visitors increased by 39.3% and the working-aged became the biggest patient group rather than the young. Compared with adults, the young were five times more likely to be examined (OR = 4.97) and three times less likely to require treatment (OR = 0.31). On average, 37% of the young, 73% of the working-aged and 63% of the elderly needed basic treatment. Multi-level analysis showed that the young had the shortest examination intervals and the working aged the longest (0.50 years longer). Most examination intervals of the young and the elderly were 1 year (65.2 - 77.0%), but only half (49.5%) of the working-aged were re-examined within 1 year. Over time, the examination intervals increased slightly in all groups. Most visiting intervals remained at 1 year. Conclusion Young patients had mostly annual or biannual examinations, in line with recommendations. The examination intervals of working aged adults were considerably longer, and more of them needed treatment. The share of elderly among visitors remained low. The PDS seems to have access barriers for adults.

Preterm children (born r-values varied between 0.29 and 0.43, p < 0.01). In the VP/VLBW group, 33% to 74% of the children with early weak language development had weak literacy skills at 7 years relative to those with more advanced early language skills (11% to 44%, p < 0.001 to 0.047). Language development at 2 years explained 14% to 28% of the variance in literacy skills 5 years later. Language development at 2 years had fair predictive value for literacy skills at 7 years in the VP/VLBW group (area under the receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve (AUC) values varied between 0.70 and 0.77, p < 0.001). Findings provide support for the continuum between very early language development and later language ability, in the domain of literacy skills in preterm children.

Puutavaran painon mittaus tehdään puutavaran kuljetuksen yhteydessä metsätraktoreiden ja puutavara-autojen nostureiden vaaoilla tai puutavaran tehdasvastaanoton yhteydessä kiinteillä ajoneuvovaaoilla tai puunkäsittelykoneiden vaaoilla. Ensimmäisestä käytetään nimitystä kuormainvaakamittaus ja jälkimmäisestä nimitystä paino-otantamittaus.Puutavaran painon muuntamiseen tilavuussuureiden arvoiksi käy­te­tään muuntokertoimia, niin sanottuna tuoretiheyslukuja [kg m]. Kuormain­vaaka­mittauksessa tuore­tiheyslukuina käytetään kiinteitä, säädösperusteisia kertoimia. Vastaavasti paino-otanta­mittauksessa tuoretiheysluvut määritetään puutavarasta valittavan otoksen ja otantaeristä tehtävien mittausten perusteella. Paino-otantamittaus tehdään mittauspaikka-, eli tehdaskohtaisesti, jolloin otannan perusjoukko muodostuu tietyn puutavaralajin tehtaalle toimitettavasta puutavarasta.Tässä tutkimuksessa tarkasteltiin mänty- ja koivukuitupuun tuoretiheyttä, sekä laadittiin tuore­tiheyden ennustemalli. Puutavaran tehdasmittauspaikkojen, alkuperämaakuntien ja mittausvuosien välillä tuoretiheydessä oli tilastollisesti merkitseviä eroja, mutta absoluuttiset erot olivat pieniä. Tärkeimmät tuoretiheyteen vaikuttavat tekijät olivat mittausajankohdan vuodenaika ja varastointiaika, joiden mukaan tuoretiheyden vaihteluväli oli enimmillään noin 100 kg m. Tarkasteltaessa samasta maakunnasta eri mittauspaikkoihin toimitettua puutavaraa, suurimmassa osassa tapauksista tuoretiheydessä ei ollut tilastollisesti merkitseviä eroja mittauspaikkojen välillä. Tällä perusteella näyttää alustavasti mahdolliselta, että paino-otantamittauksessa otannan perusjoukko muodostettaisiin aluekohtaisesti nykyisen mittauspaikkakohtaisen otannan sijasta. Edellytyksenä kuitenkin on, että eri mittauspaikkoihin toimitettava puutavara on tuoretiheyteen vaikuttavien ominaisuuksien suhteen samankaltaista.Tutkimuksessa laadituilla malleilla pystytään ennustamaan mänty- ja koivukuitupuun tuoretiheys tehtaalle toimitettaessa, kun tunnetaan puutavaralaji, varastointiaika ja maantieteellinen alkuperä. Jatkossa malleja on tarvittaessa mahdollista hyödyntää kuormainvaakamittauksen kiinteiden tuoretiheyslukujen määrittämisessä.

Hakkuukonemittauksessa tyvipölkkyjen tyviosan läpimitat määritetään laskennallisesti puulaji­kohtaisilla tyvifunktioilla. Tyviosalla tarkoitetaan 1,3 metrin pituista rungonosaa kaatosahauksesta lähtien. Tämän tutkimuksen tavoitteena oli tarkastaa ja tarvittaessa korjata hakkuukonemittauksessa käytettävä männyn tyvifunktio. Tutkimukseen valittiin 33 eri puolella Suomea sijaitsevaa mäntymetsikköä, joista valittiin 825 koepuuta. Koepuiden mittauksia tehtiin metsässä, ja hakkuiden jälkeen koepuiden tyvipölkyille tehtiin mittauksia kuudella eri tehtaalla. Koetyvipölkkyjen tyviosien vertailutilavuudet määritettiin upotusmittauksella. Tyvifunktioissa tyviosan suhteellinen muoto muuttuu tyvipölkyn järeyden, siis 130 senttimetrin etäisyydeltä kaatosahauksesta mitatun läpimitan, mukaan. Tässä tutkimuksessa tyvifunktio tuotti pienillä puilla suurempia, ja suurilla puilla pienempiä läpimittoja koepuiden tyviosista saksimittauksella mitattuihin läpimittoihin verrattuna. Koetyvipölkkyaineistossa tyviosan suhteellinen muoto ei muuttunut pölkkyjen järeyden mukaan, vaan oli likimäärin vakio. Tyvifunktion korjaus muodostui kahdesta vaiheesta, niin sanotuista oikaisukorjauksesta ja tasokorjauksesta. Tyvifunktion oikaisukorjaus tehtiin koepuiden tyviosista saksimittauksella mitattujen läpimitta-aineistojen perusteella. Näin korjatun tyvifunktion perusteella määritetyt koetyvipölkkyjen tyviosan tilavuudet olivat noin viisi prosenttia tyviosien upotustilavuuksia suurempia kaikilla järeyksillä. Edelleen tyvifunktiolle tehtiin tasokorjaus siten, että tyvifunktion perusteella määritetyt tyviosan tilavuudet vastasivat upotustilavuutta. Tyvifunktion korjauksen vaikutus sillä määritettyyn tyviosan tilavuuteen oli pienillä noin 50 litran rungoilla (rinnankorkeusläpimitta noin 10 senttimetriä) noin –8,5 prosenttia ja suurilla noin 1750 litran rungoilla (rinnankorkeusläpimitta noin 45 senttimetriä) noin –2,9 prosenttia. Kun tyvifunktion korjaus suhteutetaan koko rungon tilavuuksiin, olivat vastaavat osuudet noin –2,3 ja –0,4 prosenttia. Kun korjaus suhteutetaan Suomen kokonaishakkuukertymäarvioissa esitettyihin järeysluokkien osuuksiin, on kokonaisvaikutus suuntaa-antavasti noin yhden prosentin vähennys männyn kokonaistilavuudessa.

We present a new application of terrestrial laser scanning and mathematical modelling for the quantitative change detection of tree biomass, volume, and structure. We investigate the feasibility of the approach with two case studies on trees, assess the accuracy with laboratory reference measurements, and identify the main sources of error, and the ways to mitigate their effect on the results. We show that the changes in the tree branching structure can be reproduced with about ±10% accuracy. As the current biomass detection is based on destructive sampling, and the change detection is based on empirical models, our approach provides a non-destructive tool for monitoring important forest characteristics without laborious biomass sampling. The efficiency of the approach enables the repeating of these measurements over time for a large number of samples, providing a fast and effective means for monitoring forest growth, mortality, and biomass in 3D.

Maternal depressive symptoms during pregnancy have been associated with child behavioural symptoms of attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) in early childhood. However, it remains unclear if depressive symptoms throughout pregnancy are more harmful to the child than depressive symptoms only during certain times, and if maternal depressive symptoms after pregnancy add to or mediate any prenatal effects. 1,779 mother-child dyads participated in the Prediction and Prevention of Pre-eclampsia and Intrauterine Growth Restriction (PREDO) study. Mothers filled in the Center of Epidemiological Studies Depression Scale biweekly from 12+0-13+6 to 38+0-39+6 weeks+days of gestation or delivery, and the Beck Depression Inventory-II and the Conners' Hyperactivity Index at the child's age of 3 to 6 years (mean 3.8 years, standard deviation [SD] 0.5). Maternal depressive symptoms were highly stable throughout pregnancy, and children of mothers with consistently high depressive symptoms showed higher average levels (mean difference = 0.46 SD units, 95% Confidence Interval [CI] 0.36, 0.56, p < 0.001 compared to the low group), and proportion (32.1% vs. 14.7%) and odds (odds ratio = 2.80, 95% CI 2.20, 3.57, p < 0.001) of clinically significant ADHD symptoms. These associations were not explained by the effects of maternal depressive symptoms after pregnancy, which both added to and partially mediated the prenatal effects. Maternal depressive symptoms throughout pregnancy are associated with increased ADHD symptomatology in young children. Maternal depressive symptoms after pregnancy add to, but only partially mediate, the prenatal effects. Preventive interventions suited for the pregnancy period may benefit both maternal and offspring mental health.

Boreal forests contain 30% of the global forest carbon with the majority residing in soils. While challenging to quantify, soil carbon changes comprise a significant, and potentially increasing, part of the terrestrial carbon cycle. Thus, their estimation is important when designing forest-based climate change mitigation strategies and soil carbon change estimates are required for the reporting of greenhouse gas emissions. Organic matter decomposition varies with climate in complex nonlinear ways, rendering data aggregation nontrivial. Here, we explored the effects of temporal and spatial aggregation of climatic and litter input data on regional estimates of soil organic carbon stocks and changes for upland forests. We used the soil carbon and decomposition model Yasso07 with input from the Norwegian National Forest Inventory (11275 plots, 1960-2012). Estimates were produced at three spatial and three temporal scales. Results showed that a national level average soil carbon stock estimate varied by 10% depending on the applied spatial and temporal scale of aggregation. Higher stocks were found when applying plot-level input compared to country-level input and when long-term climate was used as compared to annual or 5-year mean values. A national level estimate for soil carbon change was similar across spatial scales, but was considerably (60-70%) lower when applying annual or 5-year mean climate compared to long-term mean climate reflecting the recent climatic changes in Norway. This was particularly evident for the forest-dominated districts in the southeastern and central parts of Norway and in the far north. We concluded that the sensitivity of model estimates to spatial aggregation will depend on the region of interest. Further, that using long-term climate averages during periods with strong climatic trends results in large differences in soil carbon estimates. The largest differences in this study were observed in central and northern regions with strongly increasing temperatures.

Insect genital characters are extensively used in species level taxonomy, and their value in species delimitation is great. Based on the lock-and-key hypothesis and that genital differences function as a mechanical isolation system between species, the value of genital characters has been thought to be superior to non-genital characters. Although geographical and other kind of intraspecific variation of genitalia is often assumed very moderate, its real extent is insufficiently investigated. We examined patterns of morphological variation in the male genitalia of the tortricid moth Pammene luedersiana, using geometric morphometric tools including thin-plate spline deformation grids, and found significant variation. This variation is continuous both within and between populations. No systematic shape variation was observed between populations, but genital size showed some geographic variability. The results suggest that genital morphology is not constant and should therefore be used with caution in lepidopteran taxonomy.

Background. Attrition is a major cause of potential bias in longitudinal studies and clinical trials. Attrition rate above 20% raises concern of the reliability of the results. Few studies have looked at the factors behind attrition in follow-ups spanning decades.Methods. We analyzed attrition and associated factors of a 30-year follow-up cohort of subjects who were born with perinatal risks for neurodevelopmental disorders. Attrition rates were calculated at different stages of follow-up and differences between responders and non-responders were tested. To find combinations of variables influencing attrition and investigate their relative importance at birth, 5, 9, 16 and 30 years of follow-up we used the random forest classification.Results. Initial loss of potential participants was 13%. Attrition was 16% at five, 24% at nine, 35% at 16 and 46% at 30 years. The only group difference that emerged between responders and non-responders was in socioeconomic status (SES). The variables identified by random forest classification analysis were classified into Birth related, Development related and SES related. Variables from all these categories contributed to attrition, but SES related variables were less important than birth and development associated variables. Classification accuracy ranged between 0.74 and 0.96 depending on age.Discussion. Lower SES is linked to attrition in many studies. Our results point to the importance of the growth and development related factors in a longitudinal study. Parents’ decisions to participate depend on the characteristics of the child. The same association was also seen when the child, now grown up, decided to participate at 30 years. In addition, birth related medical variables are associated with the attrition still at the age of 30. Our results using a data mining approach suggest that attrition in longitudinal studies is influenced by complex interactions of a multitude of variables, which are not necessarily evident using other multivariate techniques.

Kuormainvaakamittauksessa metsäkuljetuksen yhteydessä punnittu energiapuun paino muunnetaan tilavuudeksi keskimääräisillä tuoretiheysluvuilla (kg/m). Metsäkuljetuksen yhteydessä tehtävä kosteuden määritys mahdollistaisi luotettavamman energiapuun tuoretiheysluvun määrittämisen. –3

Personality features are associated with individual differences in daily emotional life, such as negative and positive affectivity, affect variability and affect reactivity. The existing literature is somewhat mixed and inconclusive about the nature of these associations. The aim of this study was to shed light on what personality features represent in daily life by investigating the effect of the Five Factor traits on different daily emotional processes using an ecologically valid method. The Experience Sampling Method was used to collect repeated reports of daily affect and experiences from 104 healthy university students during one week of their normal lives. Personality traits of the Five Factor model were assessed using NEO Five Factor Inventory. Hierarchical linear modeling was used to analyze the effect of the personality traits on daily emotional processes. Neuroticism predicted higher negative and lower positive affect, higher affect variability, more negative subjective evaluations of daily incidents, and higher reactivity to stressors. Conscientiousness, by contrast, predicted lower average level, variability, and reactivity of negative affect. Agreeableness was associated with higher positive and lower negative affect, lower variability of sadness, and more positive subjective evaluations of daily incidents. Extraversion predicted higher positive affect and more positive subjective evaluations of daily activities. Openness had no effect on average level of affect, but predicted higher reactivity to daily stressors. The results show that the personality features independently predict different aspects of daily emotional processes. Neuroticism was associated with all of the processes. Identifying these processes can help us to better understand individual differences in daily emotional life.

Research results suggesting that facets of negative affectivity, i.e. anxiety, anger-hostility, and depression, relate to incident cardiovascular diseases have been steadily increasing. Evidence for depression has been especially extensive. Elevated blood pressure, a major risk factor of cardiovascular diseases, is one probable mediator in this context. The purpose of this study was to clarify the relationship of specific key elements of depressive disposition, i.e. depressive symptoms, hopelessness and vital exhaustion, with health behavior and blood pressure. Study sample was comprised of 710 middle-aged men. Participants completed self-report questionnaires assessing health behavior, depressive symptoms, vital exhaustion and hopelessness. Statistical analyses involved descriptive analyses, correlations and path analysis. Depressive symptoms and vital exhaustion associated with several unfavorable lifestyles such as smoking, alcohol consumption, and inactivity (standardized solution coefficients: 0.10, 0.14, 0.17, accordingly). However, no significant direct associations with blood pressure could be found for depressive symptoms or vital exhaustion. Hopelessness associated only with unhealthy diet (standardized solution coefficient -0.10) Moreover, for hopelessness, results showed a direct but inverse association with systolic blood pressure (standardized solution coefficient -0.08). Results suggest that the previously reported relations of depression and vital exhaustion with blood pressure could be mediated by unfavorable lifestyles. The relation of hopelessness with adverse health behaviors seems to be less significant. Also, the role of hopelessness as a risk factor of elevated blood pressure is not supported by the results of this study.